Vibratory hammer for toy musical instrument



Allg 11, 1959 R. J. Lol-1R ET AL 2,898,796

VIBRATORY HAMMER FOR TOY MUSICAL INSTRUMENT Filed June 20, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet l 45 l 5A 3A s@ M 5% EEA. f5

. INVENToRs. /20 @4 m40/Vp f 0H/a i I BY ma 75e H05/4a VIBRATORY HAMMER FOR TOY MUSICAL INSTRUMENT Filed June 20, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 A TTOZA/EYS' United States Patent C VIBRATORY HAMlVIER FOR TOY MUSICAL INSTRUMENT Raymond .1. Lohr and Walter Hubiak, Erie, Pa., assignors to Louis Marx & Company, Inc., New York, N.Y., a corporation of New York Application June 20, 1958, Serial hlm-743,302`

64 Claims. (Cl. 84-404) This. inventionrelates to musical toys, for example, a toy Xylophone, metall'ophone, or the like, and more particularly to a vibratory hammer for the same.

The primary object of the present. invention is to generally improve toy musical instruments requiring or using a hammer. A more specific object is to provide' a hammer by means ofwhich even a small unskilled child may readily obtain a vibrato effect. Another object of the invention iste provide a hammer arranged for vibration under motor drive. Still another object is to provide lsuch ahammer which is entirely self contained, the motor. being housed within the handle of the hammer. In preferredform the motor is a miniature,. very low voltageI motor, operated by. means of a flashlight battery icellwith,the latter housed i'n the, handle of the hammer.

To accomplish the foregoing general objects, andother more. specific objects which will hereinafter appear, my invention resides inthe motor driven vibratilehammer lelements and.thcir relation one to another as are hereinaftermore particularly describedin the-following speci- :ficatiom The. specification is accompanied by. drawings .-in whichz.

Fig. l is a perspective view explanatory. of the invention;

Fig. 2is a plan-view. of the same;

Fig. 3 is avertical section taken approximately .inthe lplanefofthe line. 3-3 ofFig, 2;

Figi..3A is afragmentary section on the line 3A3A lin Fig. 3;

Fig. 4,is a detail looking inthe direction of the arrows 4.-4 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 isa sectiontaken inthe plane of .the line 5-5 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 6l is .a section taken .in the .plane of the. line 64-6 of Fig..3, with the motor and Vwires omitted;

Fig. 7 is ,aY section/taken in the plane of the line 7-7 ofFig. 3, with the motor and wires omitted;

Fig. 8 is a section taken in the plane of the line 3 8 of Fig. 3, Awith. the motor and 4wires omitted;

Fig. 9 is an end view of. the cover half of the front portion of the handle, lookingA in the direction offthe arrows 9-9 lof Fig. 2;

Fig. l0 is a fragmentary section drawn to enlarged scale and taken at the line 10-10 of Fig. 2;'

Fig. 1l is a fragmentary view corresponding to the lower left part of Fig. 3 but drawn to enlarged scaleto .show a detail;

Fig. l2 shows a yoke forming a part of the control switch;

Fig. 13 is an end view.of the motor.; and

Fig. 14 is a fragmentary elevationlookingin the direction of arrows 14-.14 in Fig. 9.

Referring to the drawing, and more particularly to Fig. l, the vibratile hammer, generally designated 12, is held in one hand, as indicated by dotted lines 14, and is used to operate a musical toy such as the toy Xylophone or metallophone generallydesignated 16. This comprises a pair of convergent supports' 18on lwhich'a series of 2,898,796 Patented Aug. 11, 1959 metallophone plates Ztl are loosely mounted. The plates are graduated in length to correspond to the musical tones of a scale. Tubes may be used instead of plates, or wood strips instead of metal.

Referring now to Fig. 3, the hammer comprises a handle 22 and a head 24 mounted on the handle 22. A motor 26 is housed in the handle 272, and is operatively linked to the head 24 in such fashion that the motor vibrates the head.

More specifically, the head 24 is carried at the outer end of a resilient wire arm 2S. This has been greatly shortened in Figs. 2 and 3 of the drawing, but is shown more nearly to length in Fig. l. To facilitate vibration of the arm 28, it is preferably pivotally mounted, in this case at the left end of the housing, or at the point marked 301 in Figs. 2, 3, and 1l. The motor 26 is a rotatable motor, and a crank 32 is mounted on the shaft 34 of the motor. The inner end` 36 of the arm- 28 is connected to crank32, and is vibrated thereby.

The operation of the motor is preferably controlled by a. switch operated by a push button 40, the latter preferably being so located as to be readily operated while holding. and using the hammer in one hand.

It kwill be understood that a two-wire flexible cordmay be led to the handle from a suitable power source, but in the present case the hammer is made entirely self contained. For this purpose, thevmotor 26 is preferably azminiature, very low voltagel motor, and is housed in the forward portion of the handle 22. Such motors have been. highly developed and' commercializedfor use in toys, models and the'like,fand one commonv form, shown in Fig. 13, operates on only 1% volts. The field is magnetized by meansy of a smallV block of permanent magnetic material such as Alnico and other known materials. In Fig. 13, the straight outer ends of thearcuate magnet poles are shown at 42, and rest against a permanently magnetized block 44.

The motor may be energized from a single flashlight .type'battery cell, and reverting to Fig. 3, such a cell is shown at 46, it -being housedin the rear portion of the handle 2,2. Appropriate circuitry is provided between the cell 46 and the motor 26,` including the switch operated by the push button 4G.

The handle 22 is preferably ay hollow, generally cylindrical handle. The lower part 48fis made in one piece, while the upper part has a forward'portion 50, and a rear portion 52. These'are separate, so that the cover 50 may be left in position when removing and replacing the cell 46. Forraccess to thev latter, it is enough to open the rear cover 52, without disturbing the forward cover 50. The rear cover 52 is hinged at 54, and the particular form of hinge here shown is interesting and inexpensive, it being simply an integral piece of material formed integrally with theV parts 48 and 52 -of the housing. More specifically, in the present case, the housing is'molded out of a polyethylene plastics material. During molding, the cavity for part 52 is turned outward directly away from the part 4S, with the hinge part 54 then being parallel to the axis, as shown in lbroken lines at the'right end of Fig. 2. Afterward, the part 52 may be turned upwardly and forwardly to overlie the part 48, with the relatively thin hinge portion 54 then being disposed vertically as shown in Fig. 3.

The hinge part 54 is defined by'a `vertical slit on each side. These slits are shown at 53, 55 in Fig. 3A, which is afhorizontal section through thehinge part 54;

The forward cover portion 50 may beeither permanently or releasably secured to the-lowerl portion 4S of the handle, preferably by means of a single fastener. For this purpose the rear end y56 (Fig. 9) of cover 50 has a pair of rearwardly projecting tongues 58, also Ashown in Fig. 14. These slide into mating slots 60(Fig. 8),

9 the said slots being formed in a transverse wall 62 which is molded integrally with the lower portion 48 of the handle.

The forward end of cover 50 has an ear 64 (Figs. 2 and 3) which overlies a similar ear 66 formed integrally with the lower part 48. The two ears are secured together by a single fastener 68, here shown as a screw and nut, but an eyelet equally well may be used if subsequent servicing is not contemplated.

rThe rear cover 52 is held closed by releasable hooks or detents shown at 70 in Fig. 2. One of these is better shown to enlarged scale in Fig. l0. These hooks 70 are formed integrally with the lower part 48 of the handle, and they hook over outwardly displaced ledges 72 formed integrally with the cover 52. The cover is flexible enough so that it may be released oy pulling the ledges 72 apart to escape the hooks 70, thus permitting wide opening of the cover, as indicated in broken lines at 52 in Fig. 2. The battery cell 46 (Fig. 3) is then readily slid upwardly for removal.

The motor 26 (Fig. 3) is held in position by transverse walls 74 and 76. The wall 74 receives the forward bearing, and the wall 76 receives the rear bearing of the motor. Both walls are molded integrally with the lower part 48 of the housing. The conguration of the wall 74 is shown in Fig. 6, the forward bearing being received at 78. The conguration of the wall '76 is shown at Fig. 7, the rear bearing of the `motor being received at This rear bearing is hexagonal in configuration as shown at 82 in Fig. 13. The wall 76 (Fig. 7) is cut away at 82 to receive a conductor passing from the rear to the forward part of the handle, as shown at 84 in Fig. 3.

The bottom portion 4S of the handle has a pocket 86 depending therefrom, as is clearly shown in Figs. -8 of the drawing. This pocket receives the permanent magnet portion of the motor, that is the parts marked 42, 44 in Fig. 13.

The wiring may be described as follows. The cell 46 slides between bent pieces of resilient metal, the rear piece 88 being eyeleted to the bottom of the handle at 9i), and the forward piece 92 being eyeleted to the bottom of the housing at 94. The part 92 is bent forwardly at 96 and acts as a depressible switch contact. The push button 4() overlies the part 96 and is normally raised thereby, so that the circuit is normally open. The other part of the switch comprises an eyelet 98 to which the upper end of a wire 100 is connected. The lower end of wire 109 leads into the motor 26, and is connected to one of the brushes engaging the commutator. The circuit is completed by the wire 84, the rear end of which is connected to the eyelet 96, and the forward end of which leads into the motor and is connected to the other brush engaging the opposite side of the commutator. It will be evident that the circuit will be completed by depressing the push button 40.

Eyelet 98 is secured to the top of an insulation yoke 102. This is best shown in Fig. l2, in which wire 190 is secured to eyelet 98 which, in turn, is secured in a hele at the top of yoke 102, the latter being molded out of a suitable plastics material, typically polyethylene. The lower end of the eyelet is recessed upwardly so that it cannot touch the metal parts of the motor. The yoke 162 is dimensioned to tit closely about the rear part of the motor. The forward cover Si) has a depending lug 106 (Figs. 3, 6, and 8) which is dimensioned to bear against the motor.

It was previously mentioned that the resilient wire arm 28, carrying the hammer head 24, is pivoted at 30 (Figs. 2 and 3). For this purpose, the arm 28 is preferably bent transversely as shown at 110 in Fig. 2. This acts as a pivot and is received in a mating bearing groove which is best shown at 112 in Fig. 11. This groove is formed transversely just inside the lower ear 66. Reverting to Fig. 2 the wire is then bent rearwardly at 114,

and is then bent transversely at 116 and reversely at 118 to form a bearing slot in which the crank pin 32 is received. This is best shown in Fig. 4, in which motor shaft 34 carries crank body 120 with offset crank pin 32, the latter being readily slidable in a bearing slot formed by the sidewardly bent part 116 and reversely bent part 118 of the wire. Parts 116 and 118 are preferably parallel; are spaced apart slightly more than the diameter of crank pin 32; and have a length exceeding the throw of the crank pin. It will be evident that with this arrangement, the wire is moved up and down without moving sidewardly, and thus the head 24 is oscillated about the pivot portion 110 of the bent wire, that is, in a vertical plane when the handle is held with the button on top.

Reverting to Fig. 8, the slots 60 preferably extend all the way down to and through the bottom of thc handle, as shown at 122. This makes it possible to mold the partition 62 and the slots 60 between the halves of a simple two-part mold without requiring retractible cores. Similar remark applies to the formation of the slots 124 (Fig. 10) for receiving the detent hooks 70.

The hammer head 24, in the form here shown, is a generally rounded element having an equatorial groove in which groove the free end of the wire arm 22 is received. For this purpose the end is bent into a circle or eye, as shown in broken lines at 126 in Fig. 2.

To assemble the hammer is easy. The head and wire arm are connected. The motor is previously fitted with the crank 32, and is simply dropped into position. The wire arm of the head is laid in position while sliding its loop over the crank pin. The yoke 102, previously eyeleted to the wire 100, is already around the motor or may be pushed into place around the motor. The free rear end of wire 84 is eyeleted at 90. The switch part 92 is eyeleted at 94. The switch part 92 if added earlier is simply bent upward out of the way while inserting the motor. The upper surface of the bottom of handle 48 preferably has shallow ridges on each side of the eyelets and 94 to prevent turning of parts 88 and 92 about the eyelets.

The push button 40 and cover 50 are then added, the tongues 58 being slid in position before adding the fastener 68. This completes the assembly except for dropping a flashlight cell in position, and then folding the cover 52 over the cell and downward until engaged by the detent hooks 70.

It is believed that the construction and method of assembly of our improved hammer for toy musical instruments, as well as the advantages thereof, will be apparent from the foregoing detailed description. It will also be apparent that while we have shown and described our invention in a preferred form, changes may be made in the structure shown without departing from the scope of the invention as sought to be dened in the following claims. In the claims the reference to the motor driving a crank is intended to include a cam, and the term Xylophone is intended to include a metallophone or analogous instrument played by means of a hammer.

We claim:

1. A hammer for a toy Xylophone or the like, said hammer comprising a handle, a head, a resilient flexible wire arm carrying the head and extending from one end of the handle in the direction of the long axis of the handle and carrying the head at its free end, means pivotally mounting an intermediate part of said wire, the other end of said wire being bent reversely to form spaced parallel elements which .act as a erosshead, a miniature rotatable motor housed in said handle and having a drive shaft, and eccentric means secured to the motor shaft and received in the aforesaid erosshead, whereby rotation of the motor drive shaft when the motor is energized oscillates the crosshead and consequently oscillates the head about the aforesaid pivot means.

2. A hammer for a toy Xylophone or the like, said hammer comprising a handle, a head, a resilient flexible wire arm carrying the head and extending from one end of the handle in the direction of the long axis of the handle and carrying the head at its free end, an intermediate part of said wire being bent transversely to act as a pivot, an adjacent intermediate part extending from the pivot part longitudinally of the handle, the remainder being bent transversely and reversely tot form spaced parallel elements which act as a crosshead, a miniature rotatable motor housed in said handle and having a drive shaft extending longitudinally of the handle, and eccentric means secured to the motor shaft .and received in the aforesaid crosshead, whereby rotation of the motor drive shaft when the motor is energized oscillates the crosshead and consequently oscillates the head about the pivot part.

3. A hammer for `a toy Xylophone or the like, said hammer comprising a handle, `a head, a resilient flexible wire arm carrying the head and extending from one end of the handle in the direction of the long axis of the handle and carrying the head at its free end, a miniature motor housed in said handle, means whereby said motor when energized activates the arm and the head, said handle being a hollow generally cylindrical casing divided longitudinally to comprise a bottom part extending for the entire length of the handle, and two top parts disposed end to end over the bottom part, the forward top part enclosing the motor, the rearward top part being readily openable for insertion or removal of ya flashlight type battery cell housed in the rear portion of the handle, said parts being molded out of a plastics material, and circuitry including a normally open control switch between said cell and said motor, and a pushbutton on the forward upper portion of said handle for operating said switch.

4. A hammer for a toy Xylophone or the like, said hammer comprising a handle, a head, a resilient flexible wire arm carrying the head and extending from one end of the handle in the direction of the long axis of the handle and carrying the head at its free end, a miniature motor housed in said handle, means whereby said motor when energized activates the arm and the head, said handle being a hollow generally cylindrical casing divided longitudinally to comprise a bottom part extending for the entire length of the handle, and two top parts disposed end to end over the bottom part, the forward top part enclosing the motor, the rearward top part being readily openable for insertion or removal of a ashlight type battery cell housed in the rear portion of the handle, said portions being molded out of a plastics material, and said rear upper portion being molded integrally with said bottom portion with a thinned ilexible connection therebetween acting as a hinge at the rear end of the handle.

5. A hammer for a toy Xylophone or the like, said hammer comprising a handle, a head, a resilient flexible wire arm carrying the head and extending from one end of the handle in the direction of the long axis of the handle and carrying the head at its free end, an intermediate part of said wire being bent transversely to act as a pivot, an adjacent intermediate part extending from the pivot part longitudinally of the handle, the remainder being bent transversely and reversely to form spaced parallel elements which act as a crosshead, a miniature rotatable motor housed in said handle and having a `drive shaft extending longitudinally of the handle, eccentric means secured to the motor shaft and received in the aforesaid crosshead, whereby rotation of the motor drive shaft when the motor is energized oscillates the crosshead and consequently oscillates the head about the pivot part, said handle being `a hollow generally cylindrical casing divided longitudinally to comprise a bottom part and a top part disposed over the bottom part, the forward ends of said parts forming a split bearing receiving the aforesaid pivot part, and being cut away at each end of the bearing to clear the said arm and the said adjacent intermediate part for oscillation.

6. A hammer for a toy Xylophone or the like, said hammer comprising a handle, a head, a resilient flexible wire arm carrying the head and extending from one end of the handle in the direction of the long axis of the handle and carrying the head at its free end, an intermediate part of said wire being bent transversely to act as `a pivot, a miniature motor housed in said handle, means whereby the motor when energized oscillates the arm about the pivot part, said handle being a hollow generally cylindrical casing divided longitudinally to comprise a bottom part extending for the entire length of the handle and two top parts disposed end to end over the bottom part, the forward top part enclosing the motor, the rearward top part being readily openable for insertion or removal of a flashlight type battery cell housed in the rear portion of the handle, said parts being molded out of a plastics material, the forward ends of the bottom and the forward top parts forming a split bearing receiving the aforesaid pivot part, and being cut away to clear said arm for oscillation.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 873,123 Gardy Dec. 10, 1907 2,829,285 Steiner et al Apr. 1, 1958 FOREIGN PATENTS 386,622 France Apr. 15, 1908 107,177 Great Britain June 21, 1917 

